09/08/2006
FM Marcel Martinez talks about the Sharks
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by Miami Sharks Player/Manager: FM Marcel Miami
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Hello to all chess enthusiasts out there... The
Miami Sharks, even
though we have had a shady start, are looking forward to the rest of
the
matches from the US chess league this year. It looks a lot stronger
than last year as more GM's are involved and every year that passes by
the players seem to get better and better. Our
first match against Boston was a real heartbreaker as we were better in
most of the games. Becerra just blacked out against Christiansen by
playing f5? in a position he thought he knew....
but came back winning
a very nice game against talented almost-GM Joshua Friedel. This game
most likely will make it to chess informant.
(Becerra - Friedel) after 34....h6
GM Becerra found a forced win with 35. Bxf6! Qe1+
(if 35....Rxf6 36. Ra8 wins the queen) 36. Kh2 Rxf6
37. Qg4, with virtual forced mate on g7.
Blas Lugo had a very nice
game going out of the opening against strong IM Igor Foygel, and just
when it seemed Foygel was escaping away.... Blas's passed pawn proved
to be too powerful for the Boston resident. My game was a little bit
more disastrous!!.... My opponent used not a very common move in a very
known position out of the opening by playing Nc3.... which is said to
be a great invention by one GM which I admire a lot (GM Roman
Dzindichasvili), even then I got a nice position out of the opening
and was able to seize a small but seemed to be lasting advantage. For
some reason I played for my opponents time trouble (something I haven't
done since i was a kid .... but ohh well....) and got caught into some
crazy tactic allowing a brilliant perpetual check combination.... at
that point my team was already 0-2 so I needed to step up and took a
variation which i stayed up a pawn but my king was in a very risky
situation... end of story I moved the pieces around the wrong way and
my
king got mated badly. Cabrera.... is the player with more
guts (cojones) in our team and played positionally speaking
the game of his
life, only to be trashed later by some slick tactic by Ilya Krasik,
thus giving the match to Boston by the score of 3-1. Below are the
games from the first match:
Boston vs Miami
1. GM
Larry Christiansen (BOS) vs GM
Julio Becerra (MIA) 1-0
2. IM Blas
Lugo (MIA) vs IM Igor Foygel
(BOS) 1-0
3. NM
Vadim Martirosov (BOS) vs
FM Marcel Martinez (MIA) 1-0
4. Jose
Cabrera (MIA) vs NM Ilya
Krasik (BOS) 0-1
The second match was also a 3-1 loss for us with Becerra saving
the honors for
Miami by winning a very nice game against Friedel. On the second board
we had our newest team member, IM Alejandro Moreno Roman, a strong IM
from Cuba
who defected to Ecuador during a tournament over there and lived in
Quito for the last ten years. He has recently come to Miami along
with his wife and is eager to play and coach as he did for some of the
best players in Ecuador... I am sure you will hear a lot from Moreno
shortly... This guy is way stronger than his game against IM
McCambridge showed. Vince played a very nice game avoiding every little
tactic thrown at him finishing the game in nice fashion. My game
against long time buddy now IM David Pruess was as usual with him.... a
crazy game. I got the best out of the opening... as expected he did not
know too much or any after Nh3!... a move introduced into practice by
Khalifman and later on followed up by Van Wely. Somehow I had only
worked the line out till Nh3 and after that I was also on my own which
was not
very smart but when you have a regular job things sometimes are not as
you would like them to be! So the first move out of "preparation" (if
it
can be called that!!) was already bad... and as David already said in
the Mechanics blog, f3 would have been a little better... conserving
white some edge. Later on David played impeccably showing that he is
already a full fledged IM. Board 4 saw or friend Luis Barredo get
swallowed by the San Francisco youngster Sam Shankland, giving SF the
3-1
score. Below are links to all the games from the second match:
Miami vs San Francisco
1. GM
Julio Becerra (MIA) vs IM
Josh Friedel (SF) 1-0
2.
IM Vince McCambridge
(SF) vs IM Alejandro Moreno Roman (MIA) 1-0
3. FM
Marcel Martinez (MIA) vs IM
David Pruess (SF) 0-1
4.
Sam Shankland (SF) vs Luis
Barredo (MIA) 1-0
Anyways like I said... Miami is looking forward to following
matches.... there is a lot of will power down here in general and as I
like to say: " I never play in no losing team"....... Meaning we will
back up and running...
Tennessee is our next opponent..... unluckily for Mr.Andrews there
is no way I can step up to board two because I will affect the other
players in my team but if he is willing to go down to board 3 I will be
more than willing to teach him a lesson there! (Note from the editor - Todd Andrews
cannot play board 3 for the Tempo, as he is the second highest rated
player on the team) Seemingly he
believes I owe him something.... and like Rocky Marciano said: " My
ring is outside... let's do it".....
Tennessee has at least two players that I admire for their
behavior...
Mr.Burnett and Mr.Bereolos... even though I don't know them in person
they have an excellent approach to life... maybe Mr.Andrews should
learn a little from them... instead of creating a false rivalry against
me. Rivalries are set when two people are close to each other in
strength, this is definitely not the case.
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